Punjab CM announces Rs 10 cr for U’khand
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced Rs 10 crore for the reconstruction of all religious shrines, including the Kedarnath Temple and Gurdwara Hemkunt Sahib, which have been badly damaged in the recent flash floods in Uttarakhand.

Badal, who met his Uttarakhand counterpart Vijay Bahuguna at the Secretariat here today, assured all help to the government of the hill state in the aftermath of the calamity which left many people dead.

“We are with the aggrieved and calamity-stricken people of Uttarakhand and will extend full help in their rehabilitation and in task of the reconstruction of the hill state.”

He said the Punjab Government would send a consignment of 10,000 tonnes of wheat flour and rice, 100 tonnes of sugar and 10,000 blankets for the victims on July 9. Badal also promised to send 10,000 woollen sweaters and pullovers for the victims, especially for women and children. He said dry milk powder would be sent.

Expressing solidarity with the Uttarakhand Government and its people, Badal reiterated his commitment to bail the hill state out of the crisis and help it in the reconstruction of dwellings in the worst flood-hit villages as a benevolent gesture.

Expressing gratitude to Badal, Bahuguna lauded the efforts being made by the Punjab Government to help them in undertaking a herculean task of restoring normalcy to Uttarakhand. He said the people of the hill state would never forget the help extended by Punjab during this odd hour.

The Punjab Chief Minister was accompanied by Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies DS Grewal and Secretary, PWD, PS Aujla.

CISF, BSF donate Rs 17 cr for flash flood victims

New Delhi, July 5
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) today donated Rs 7 crore to the PM’s Relief Fund for the victims of the Uttarakhand floods. DG (CISF) Rajiv, presented a cheque for Rs 7 crore to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

DG (BSF) Subhash Joshi handed a draft of Rs 10 crore to Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna in Dehradun as contribution to the CM’s Relief Fund.

The BSF will spend close to Rs 16 crore on the relief work. It plans to adopt five villages for relief and reconstruction. The DG (BSF) gave a draft of Rs 70 lakh to the DGP, Uttarakhand, for further payment as compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to 14 Uttarakhand policemen personnel who lost their lives during the calamity,” said an official. — TNS

138 doctors promoted
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
The Uttarakhand Health and Family Welfare Department yesterday promoted 138 medical officers to the position of senior medical officers in the state. Besides, these doctors have also been transferred to new health facilities.

The promotion of these doctors was awaited as recently the government had promoted several specialist grade doctors.

On the other hand to help the kin of missing persons in their search for relatives lost in the Uttarakhand disaster, the missing persons' registration cell set up at the Secretariat has now launched an Internet-based software which would provide a platform for them to connect with each other on Face Book and Twitter.

Focus now on providing ration to disaster-hit
BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, July 5
As the rescue operation has virtually ended in this disaster-hit district, the administration is now concentrating on providing quota of ration to the affected and cut-off villages. It is also providing food material to those villagers, who have gone to their homes in higher valleys to spend the summer and are willing to live there till October, as the ration dropped by helicopters in these villages earlier could be used for a short time only.

“We have sent a team of 45 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force, besides the teams of the ITBP and the PWD personnel, to develop routes to the villages which have been disconnected from the main road and provide ration for one month to the villagers stuck there,” said District Magistrate, Pithoragarh, Dr Neeraj Khairawal.

He said some ration packets would be airdropped and where the weather was not clear, porters and ponies would be used to deliver the ration quota announced by the government. “We have already short-listed more than 100 porters for the work in the Johar valley,” said the District Magistrate.

According to district administration sources, the one-month ration quota for disaster-hit villages announced by the Chief Minister has reached the district and is being stored. “This quota consisting of 35 kg of ration and other items will be sent to godowns made near the Darma and Johar valleys in the district. This ration will be be delivered by horses, mules and porters to needy villagers,” said RS Rana, district disaster management officer.

“Our officers have witnessed several villagers in the Darma and Johar valleys doing cultivation and showing their traditional summer crops like potato and local cereals. These villagers told the officers that they needed ration for the next three months till they migrate down hill during the winter. We are making arrangements to provide quota ration either through the PDS or the disaster relief funds to them,” said RK Sudhaushu, Commissioner of the Kumaon region, who have been supervising the relief operation in the district.

Some villagers from disaster-hit villages in Dharchula have complained that they have not received quota ration under the disaster relief scheme and no officers have reached them till date. “About 400 residents of Sobla, New Suva, Suva, Kancholti and Khim villages that have been totally devastated are still awaiting relief announced by the government as the administration has failed to develop any link with them till date,” said Manoj Nagnyal, Gram Pradhan of Nagling village of the Dhauli Ganga basin in Dharchula subdivision.

“To avert starvation in the villages, which have been disconnected due to the calamity, ration stored at Burfu Godown in the Johar valley and Duktu godown in the Darma valley, besides the ration quota given to the district under the relief operation will be used,” said the District Magistrate.

“We have estimated losses worth Rs 320 crore in the district due to the rain fury and have identified 10,000 affected persons,” he said.

Relief work: Ham Radio, Scouts and Guides join hands
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
Against the backdrop of a large number of persons missing in the state, Ham Radio operators have engaged themselves with the Bharat Scouts and Guides in emergency relief operations.

A meeting was held today between the Director of Secondary Education of Uttarakhand and the State Chief Commissioner of the Bharat Scouts and Guides BSG, C S Gwal with Jose Jacob, Assistant Director of National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR), Rabindra Mohan Kala, State Secretary of the Bharat Scouts (BSG) and Guides. During the meeting it was discussed regarding deployment of Ham stations along with the Bharat Scouts and Guides team in the remote places where it is unable to access and to get information about the victims. It is getting difficult for the public to get information about their kith and kin.

It was also revealed that a team of Ham operators from West Bengal will shortly be deployed in Pithoragarh, and another team from Bangalore will be deployed in Chamoli. A BSG team with a Ham station is already working in Uttarkashi.

A control station has been set up in BSG state headquarters in Dehradun and it is being operated by Jose Jacob, Assistant Director of NIAR since June 24. On that day, another station was established at Barkot in Uttarkashi which is being operated by Mukesh Kumar Gola and Onkar

Amateur stations from 16 different states have contacted with the control station in Dehradun. Some stations have contacted to get information about the missing persons.

These Ham radio operators are highly trained to pass messages in all weather conditions across the country. Now it is expected that after deployment of these experts and BSG teams will help the administration to get information about the missing persons in a speedy manner.

RLEK for lifting ban on quarrying
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
The Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a voluntary organisation, has demanded that quarrying on riverbeds should be allowed as it helps check floods.

In a statement, RLEK Chairperson Avdhash Kaushal said the frequency of floods had increased manifold in the recent years. "Till a few years ago, there was hardly any report of floods in villages in Dehradun and in its vicinity. However, now there are many villages and localities that are being submerged and flooded due to wrong and unscientific propagation of facts against quarrying on riverbeds. The raised river banks are causing floods in the areas and villages near Dehradun," he said.

Avdhash Kaushal said earlier, quarrying on riverbeds was allowed and quarried material, like sand, coarse and fine, boulders and bajri was used for construction purposes. However, in the name of the environment, quarrying had been stopped.

Help yet to reach stranded equines
Animals dying of starvation
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
Contrary to the claims made by the Animal Husbandry Department, equines continue to suffer post Kedarnath catastrophe.

Most of the pilgrims use mules and horses to cover the last leg of the journey to the Kedarnath shrine that comprises a trek between Gaurikund and Kedarnath in Rudpraprayag district. A large number of these animals have suffered in the tragedy and are yet to be evacuated.

A joint team of People for Animals and Aagaas Federation, Chamoli, which visited Rudraprayag, said the condition of the animals was pathetic in the disaster-affected areas.

“Starving animals continue to fall off slopes in search for grassy patches. The situation on the Hemkunt trek is the worst. Some of our volunteers visited Pulana village and found that more than 350 animals are stranded there and no animal fodder has been sent for them till today. In Ghangaria, animals are dying of starvation,” said JP Maithani of Aagaas.

Tonnes of fodder lying at airports, helipads and godowns and is not reaching the animals it is meant for. The Animal Husbandry Department continues to be in perpetual denial mode about the gravity of the situation.

District veterinary officials at Joshimath are yet to send anyone to assess the situation. Nearly 1,500 equines are stranded on the Hemkunt trek. “There has been no progress on the evacuation which is the need of the hour. We demand a continuous delivery of fodder for stranded animals and their evacuation, wherever required,” he said.

On the other hand, Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Dr Kamal Mehrotra said the department had airdropped over 200 quintals of fodder in Chamoli for horses and mules in distress. Similarly, over 100 qunitals of feed had as been provided for Rudraprayag district.

He said the department was undertaking relief activities for animals in disaster-struck areas on a war footing.

Jaswant Singh, Pankaj Pokhriyal, Anuj Namboodri and Akhilesh Maithani were part of the joint team of Aagaas Federation and PFA, Dehradun, to oversee and coordinate rescue and relief operations on the Hemkunt trek.

Govt gave wrong info on rescued pilgrims to SC, says Bhatt
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 5
The Leader of the Opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, Ajya Bhatt, yesterday charged the state government with providing wrong information in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court by claiming that all persons stranded due to the natural disaster had been evacuated to safe places.

“The Uttarakhand government has misled the Supreme Court by stating that all stranded pilgrims have been evacuated to safe places while around 800 mules and 300 villagers are still stranded in Pulna and Bhuyndar villages of Joshimath. Similarly, in Pithoragarh more than 800 persons are still stranded and around 200 persons are also stranded in Badrinath,” said Bhatt while speaking to mediapersons.

He said till date the Vijay Bahuguna government had failed to provide information about the number of persons missing due to the flash floods. “The incompetent government has been so helpless in the face of the tragedy that it has failed to tabulate the number of missing persons, cremate the dead in time and come up with a list of villages in Uttarakhand that have been hit by the natural disaster,” said Bhatt.

He criticised the government for politicising the calamity by distributing food items and ration carrying pictures of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

“The government is resorting to cheap politics by putting pictures of its political leaders on relief bags,” Bhatt added. 

IAF pilot recounts stories of valour in Kedarnath
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5
As Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots and helicopters retreat in batches from flood-hit Uttarakhand to their bases, stories of valour that how helicopters landed at difficult places and evacuated pilgrims are being talked about.

Wing Commander Nikhil Naidu, who was sent to Uttarakhand on June 18, was among the first lot of IAF pilots to see the devastated Gaurikund-Kedarnath stretch, the epicentre of flash floods and mudslides.

Wing Commander Naidu, accompanied by Fight-Lieut Miskeen, Wing Commander S Gupta and Squardon Leader Gartia, reached Kedarnath at 9 am on June 18. “The sight of destruction at Rambada, where stranded people had been taking refuge in heaps of bodies, shocked us,” said Naidu.

“It was very difficult to look for survivors on a narrow Gaurikund and Kedranath axis. Rambada village had been completely obliterated by the disaster. There was no place to land at Jungle Chatti and Gaurikund. Huge trees and power cables blocked the descent of copters. We touched one of the skids of our copter on the ground and with no support staff started evacuation operation,” he said.

“On June 19, two civilians, Bisht and Joginder Rana, also started assisting the IAF. On June 22, the pilot of a private helicopter informed us about a couple stranded at an altitude of 10,500 ft. The couple was stuck at a precarious position with no way to walk down to the nearest makeshift helipad. It was a decision to be taken to attempt a dangerous operation of sending an iron cord down to lift up civilians who would be untrained in being lifted up by a hovering copter. As MET Department had forecast heavy rains from June 23 and June 24, the evening of June 22 was the last chance to evacuate the couple,” said Wing Commander Nikhil Naidu.

“They had to be winched using an iron cord and that would be possible only if there was someone on the ground to strap them in the winch. Joginder Rana volunteered to help. He was sent down. The high altitude, huge trees and winds added to the risk. But we managed to save the two lives. The couple is now recuperating at a hospital in Gujarat. Had this couple perished, I would have been guilty for the rest of my life.”

He further said, “The valley was narrow. A close coordination between the pilots and respect for each other’s courage made the task easier.”

Wing Commander Naidu belong to a family of Armed Forces personnel. His father Lt Gen ML Naidu has been the Vice-Chief of the Army. His maternal grandfather Lt Col Bharamanand Avasthi, attained martyrdom in 1962 during a battle in Arunachal Pradesh, which is known as ‘Last stand at Lha Gyala Gompa’.